Matt Cardle: Hypnotist helped me give up smoking so I was fit enough for Memphis

Matt Cardle turned to a hypnotist to quit smoking so he could get in shape for his West End debut in hit musical Memphis.

And the singer, an avid skateboarder for the past 20 years, has a clause in his contract which bans him from the sport in case he falls off and injures himself.

The 2010 X Factor winner, 32, won a standing ovation at a gala press night at the Shaftesbury Theatre, where he is playing the lead role of Huey, a DJ who defies segregation in the American South to promote black music. He landed the role after being asked to audition by co-star Beverley Knight, who plays aspiring singer Felicia.

He told the Standard it was the hardest experience of his life, adding: “I’m not unfit, but I could be fitter. Bev said, ‘You’re going to have to get fit and stop smoking’.

“That’s the first thing she said, ‘You’ve got to quit the fags or you won’t make it’. And I was like, ‘Really?’ And I now know there is no way on God’s green earth I could have done it if I still smoked.

“I was smoking 30 a day. I’m all right now — I went to see a hypnotist in Harley Street. I won’t go back to smoking. That’s me done.”

He added: “I skateboard a lot. But I’ve been told I’m not allowed because they can’t have a Huey with a broken wrist or a broken leg. In the contract is ‘no skateboarding’, so I have four months off from it but I’m fine with that. But I think it must be a West End first!”

Cardle was recording his fourth album but put the record on hold until after his run finishes in October. He said: “These roles aren’t easy to come by, especially ones as good as this. You don’t take that lightly. I absolutely love it. I’m having the most fun I’ve had doing anything and also working harder than I’ve ever worked as well.”